A battle; squalls & races [ep 193]
February 19, 2026 · 26 min · 132K views · Tuamotus
Crew manages spinnaker lines during high-speed sailboat race
What this video covers
Lauren Landers sails her Beneteau Oceanis 510 to a remote atoll anchorage during cyclone season, navigating a pass with 2–3 knots of incoming current before anchoring among coral heads with as little as six inches of keel clearance over bommies.▶ 5:05 The primary anchoring concern is swinging 360 degrees when squalls arrive — often at 2 a.m. — without striking coral.▶ 5:40 Squalls hit 35–43 knots repeatedly, locking the crew aboard for days at a stretch with only 20-minute gaps between systems.▶ 13:50 A navigation screen fails during the blow but causes no immediate crisis.▶ 14:03 En route, Lauren and a neighboring boat, Sylvia Marie, run an informal race using a spinnaker in 5 knots of apparent wind against Sylvia Marie's motoring jib — a light-air comparison that holds 3.5 knots under sail.▶ 3:37 The crew sails two to three hours downwind to the atoll's town pass to check a small store stocked with little beyond canned goods, frozen zucchini, and ground beef.▶ 15:28 Lauren begins learning wing foiling on a paddleboard during wind breaks, reaching the beach and back in 45 minutes on her first real attempt.▶ 23:07 Dog Mako loses a fetch toy in the anchorage.▶ 20:17 Anchoring in coral-head-dense atoll passes during cyclone season demands pre-swim keel-clearance checks before committing to a swing radius.
Boats in this video
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